I tried to practice how to say it, but google translate has a really bad playback pronunciation guide. oh well! Alles Gute!
-lab
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Alles Gute!
Today is Alexander's birthday. Chrissy and I made cupcakes last night because I've been itching to bake since getting home, so I didn't even have to think of a decoration theme.
I tried to practice how to say it, but google translate has a really bad playback pronunciation guide. oh well! Alles Gute!
-lab
I tried to practice how to say it, but google translate has a really bad playback pronunciation guide. oh well! Alles Gute!
-lab
summer evenings
I'm relaxing back to the quiet of the suburban lifetsyle. I actually still haven't set foot in my fav city this side of the Atlantic, and I'm not sure if I will even this month. It's been different staying in, playing music, cooking a nice dinner, and having a glass of wine with friends. It's nice to not be constantly in motion--life in the city has you always up and down, meeting here and there, trying this place and that one. I to keep things balanced, so it's good that I'm on the chilled half of the scale for a stint.
Things are going to pick up when school starts (whether I want them to or not) and every night has a million things going on. I'm lucky to soak in the beautiful twilights, sunsets, and evening breezes that summer in New England has to offer while I can.
This coming weekend I'm going camping with a huge group of people from my church, maybe even sixty or more. There's a group campsite up in Vermont on a river with enough space to spread out and even play ultimate frisbee. I've never really been camping, so I'm really REALLY excited. I'm bunking in a big tent with 6 other girls (a couple of them old friends I haven't seen much these years) and we're going to have campfires and big barbecues, volleyball tournaments and star watching. My heart is beating faster in pure anticipation as I write this...My mind is skipping back to the old school church retreats in middle school with Grace Chapel...Camp Berea, with the infamous "pudding slide" Saturday afternoon and the leader's "man-hunt" Saturday night. My favorite part was always when someone would have an impromptu extra time of music and prayer late late Saturday night in the old chapel. Jody would go from song to song, rarely needing to flip her music, creating a perfect sequence of lyrics and rhythms with her voice and guitar. Such a rejuvenating, renewing get-away from business, families, and activities.
Now I'm old enough to be a youth volunteer myself (if only I had time!), and for this camping trip I could be that person with the guitar starting up something wonderful. A chance for people to be quiet and reflect; pour themselves into singing and the stillness that truly comes from hanging out in a forest (with cell phones turned off and laptops left at home). When I think about this coming weekend, I'm definitely looking forward to spending quality time with a lot of people I've been missing since I went to college, but most of all, I'm anxious to have some time for myself; to wake up super early and find a spot where I can play guitar without waking anyone else up. I love having a glorious bit of morning to myself (with some coffee). It's the same feeling I get when I think about driving out to the cottage in Michigan next week---knowing I'll have some peace and calm restored, that I'll be able to process a lot of this year, both thinking things through and writing them down. To serenade the sunset from the boathouse, and greet the dawn in my sleeping bag on the dock. Have a lot of me and God time, in our favorite place, looking out on the lake, and knowing that His timing is perfect, and one day all of my questions will be answered. I always ask a lot of big ones when I'm in Michigan.
To return to camping: Probably what trumps everything, is the anticipation I have to sleep in the basically-new green caterpillar-esque sleeping bag I bought off a Wellesley girl Sophomore year. It is SO warm and snuggly!
-lab
Things are going to pick up when school starts (whether I want them to or not) and every night has a million things going on. I'm lucky to soak in the beautiful twilights, sunsets, and evening breezes that summer in New England has to offer while I can.
This coming weekend I'm going camping with a huge group of people from my church, maybe even sixty or more. There's a group campsite up in Vermont on a river with enough space to spread out and even play ultimate frisbee. I've never really been camping, so I'm really REALLY excited. I'm bunking in a big tent with 6 other girls (a couple of them old friends I haven't seen much these years) and we're going to have campfires and big barbecues, volleyball tournaments and star watching. My heart is beating faster in pure anticipation as I write this...My mind is skipping back to the old school church retreats in middle school with Grace Chapel...Camp Berea, with the infamous "pudding slide" Saturday afternoon and the leader's "man-hunt" Saturday night. My favorite part was always when someone would have an impromptu extra time of music and prayer late late Saturday night in the old chapel. Jody would go from song to song, rarely needing to flip her music, creating a perfect sequence of lyrics and rhythms with her voice and guitar. Such a rejuvenating, renewing get-away from business, families, and activities.
Now I'm old enough to be a youth volunteer myself (if only I had time!), and for this camping trip I could be that person with the guitar starting up something wonderful. A chance for people to be quiet and reflect; pour themselves into singing and the stillness that truly comes from hanging out in a forest (with cell phones turned off and laptops left at home). When I think about this coming weekend, I'm definitely looking forward to spending quality time with a lot of people I've been missing since I went to college, but most of all, I'm anxious to have some time for myself; to wake up super early and find a spot where I can play guitar without waking anyone else up. I love having a glorious bit of morning to myself (with some coffee). It's the same feeling I get when I think about driving out to the cottage in Michigan next week---knowing I'll have some peace and calm restored, that I'll be able to process a lot of this year, both thinking things through and writing them down. To serenade the sunset from the boathouse, and greet the dawn in my sleeping bag on the dock. Have a lot of me and God time, in our favorite place, looking out on the lake, and knowing that His timing is perfect, and one day all of my questions will be answered. I always ask a lot of big ones when I'm in Michigan.
To return to camping: Probably what trumps everything, is the anticipation I have to sleep in the basically-new green caterpillar-esque sleeping bag I bought off a Wellesley girl Sophomore year. It is SO warm and snuggly!
-lab
Sunday, July 10, 2011
one long week
Lying on the floor of my grandma's sitting room, it's difficult to believe that I've only been home for a week.
What a week it has been---seeing my entire dad's side of the family, some of them for the first time in 10 months, hanging out with a few of my best friends for the first time since Christmas, and singing daily in my favorite practice room back at wellesley.
Life returns so easily to the patterns of places and people once practiced.
I've been lying here, listening first to the Reinecke flute sonata and then some miles davis, and now bon iver on my grandma's incredible stereo system. The music carries me through time and space and resonates with the strangeness of everything right now.
Strange: to have returned at once so much the same, yet so different, to the place that is supposed to know me best. Home. It is so good to be here, rejuvenating, but I can't shake off this longing for other places and for friends that will now be referred to as "old friends", "dear friends", "missed friends". Not one can be replaced---small corners of my heart are going to be lacking their smiles and warmth.
I suppose it will always be like this, constant comings and goings. I'll turn into a guesthouse, peaceful and friendly, with simple food and good wine. Friends and loved ones will enter my open door and we'll share time and music. But no one can stay forever, and those gone will always be missed until they can come again to visit. No wonder people grow old and weary from the burdens of hearts, so many comings and goings, hellos and good-byes. First embraces, and final ones.
My luggage may have been under the weight limit, but I'm lucky they didn't ask me up on the scale at the airport check-in. I flew home with a heart heavier than I've ever known--full of memories, love, joy, sadness, even a little pain, hopes, and new dreams. I won't lug it around forever, so I'll try to pour it into my journals, songs, and art of these precious summer months. Plus I'll need to fit into some nice audition and concert dresses soon, so this big swollen heart is going to have to shapen up.
-lab
What a week it has been---seeing my entire dad's side of the family, some of them for the first time in 10 months, hanging out with a few of my best friends for the first time since Christmas, and singing daily in my favorite practice room back at wellesley.
Life returns so easily to the patterns of places and people once practiced.
I've been lying here, listening first to the Reinecke flute sonata and then some miles davis, and now bon iver on my grandma's incredible stereo system. The music carries me through time and space and resonates with the strangeness of everything right now.
Strange: to have returned at once so much the same, yet so different, to the place that is supposed to know me best. Home. It is so good to be here, rejuvenating, but I can't shake off this longing for other places and for friends that will now be referred to as "old friends", "dear friends", "missed friends". Not one can be replaced---small corners of my heart are going to be lacking their smiles and warmth.
I suppose it will always be like this, constant comings and goings. I'll turn into a guesthouse, peaceful and friendly, with simple food and good wine. Friends and loved ones will enter my open door and we'll share time and music. But no one can stay forever, and those gone will always be missed until they can come again to visit. No wonder people grow old and weary from the burdens of hearts, so many comings and goings, hellos and good-byes. First embraces, and final ones.
My luggage may have been under the weight limit, but I'm lucky they didn't ask me up on the scale at the airport check-in. I flew home with a heart heavier than I've ever known--full of memories, love, joy, sadness, even a little pain, hopes, and new dreams. I won't lug it around forever, so I'll try to pour it into my journals, songs, and art of these precious summer months. Plus I'll need to fit into some nice audition and concert dresses soon, so this big swollen heart is going to have to shapen up.
-lab
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
back home
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| the beautiful wellesley library, my home this summer |
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| lunch breaks, just me, my sandwich, and lake waban |
sigh.
Happy 4th!
We had our family celebration for 4th of July on Sunday, so on the 4th itself I was left a bit to my own devices. All of my my friends were either working or out of town, so I met up just with one of my besties and we chilled all afternoon. We both had to get up super early for work Tuesday (which is why I am awake now at this ungodly hour!) so we skipped searching for fireworks displays and decided to get my first slushy of the summer, at good 'ole Cumberland Farms. She also, you know, needed to fill her tank up.
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| this sky was almost better than fireworks |
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| i am SO HAPPY to be hanging out with this girl!!!!! |
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| Chrissy's on the left, mine on the right. She did a better layer job with red,white, and blue. But just because I'm a bit rusty! |
I read somewhere, maybe in a dumb yearbook but it's ok because this is good: Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. Oh, Vienna!
-lab
the story
My 9 year-old cousin spent the weekend messing around with my dad's camera and happened to film my explanation of why I missed my flight on Thursday. Excuse me stuffing my face---I had been traveling for 20 hours and was tired and hungry!
-lab
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