mother-in-laws

Debbie. 

today is the birthday of

the best mother-in-law ever...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Debbie!

just a few pics of us at the Dogwood Festival last April...

those days

smiles. 

some days, when you're not feeling so hot,

all you can do is making someone else happy. 

it helps if they're really cute and 

don't need much...

and then we saw a stork. 

i think.

midquarter crisis

rest.

i haven't been feeling well lately, 

so today i'm thankful for being able to take

a little bit of time away from studying/school

to get some rest. 

hopefully i'll be back on my feet again soon.

a pretty room

art school love.

this is my favorite bathroom at school.

is that weird?

i maybe sometimes go here to do work.

sadly, it doesn't happen often since

i rarely have a reason to go over to the main building.

preferences

Bartleby. 

Today I'm reading Herman Melville's  

Bartleby the Scrivener.

And I have a confession: I've never read Moby-Dick. 

I know, i know. 

I should.

But, in Bartleby's words, I'd prefer not to.

:)

Cuban food

Papi's. 

(and classmates:)

yummy scrumptious Cuban food that i ate 

way too much of this afternoon, with my hilarious, 

wonderful fellow classmate, Sydia. 

too bad i had to work afterward -

i could have done with a good ol' fashioned 

siesta.

my favorite colors

matching with my pup-pup. 

yes, me and lars matched today.

except he needs some red lipstick...

:D

texas style

dinner at home.

don't you love taco salad?

i do. it makes me think of home.

confessions

my yellow skirt.

because it makes me happy.

secretly, i love yellow. 

it's one of the few bright colors i like wearing. 

not too often you understand, 

but once in awhile, it brightens up a grey day. 

once upon a time...

Author.

Elizabeth Kostova, author of The Historian, has been 

a visiting teacher in my class this quarter. 

I went to her reading tonight from her new book, The Swan Thieves, 

and I've been very impressed with her - 

ability to crank out these long, complex, historical novels,

dedication to and knowledge of prose,

wonderful coaching and advice to us in class,

love for Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady

and Wuthering Heights, one of my all-time favorite books,

and for being such a lovely, warm, genuine person. 

These opportunities are pretty great.

still life.

fresh fruit.

lately i've had a craving for fresh fruit. 

probably my body telling me to stop eating freezer food:(

yum.

being writerly

working outside.

i love being able to sit outside in the sunshine

and do some writing. i don't mind if it's starbucks

if i can just sit and be writerly for awhile in good outside weather.

in fact, this is my career goal:) -

 

zippity doo da.

morning walk.

in an effort to be a more healthy, morning person,

i took lars for an early morning walk. 

okay, i know that 8:30 is not exactly early morning.

bear with me. baby steps, people, baby steps.

so, because i've never been good at exercising in the morning,

we just went on a nice leisurely walk in the neighborhood,

trying our best not to get freaked out by passing cars and 

trashtrucks. (ahem, lars). 

morning really is my favorite time of day...to sleep:)

just kidding, it was nice to be up and out in the sunshine!

oh no! a car!

proof i'm not lying. i really was out there:)

huge, beautiful flowers. no idea what kind.

must! smell! everything!

mellow mushroom

cheese pizza, please.

in our never-ending quest for the perfect pizza

(which i'm pretty sure can still be found at Antico),

we decided to hit up mellow mushroom 

after a grocery run, this evening.

it was nice to be out and about like real people,

but i have to say, it was definitely chain pizza.

i remember liking it better in Austin.

oh well, i'm not going to turn my nose up at pizza!

favorite writers

henry james.

today i reread henry james' novella, 

the turn of the screw. very creepy. 

i love henry james, but my all-time favorite

of his is The Portrait of a Lady. 

i love that he completely breaks all the

rules to show instead of tell, but it's genius and amazing. 

i love

the rain at night

and driving home.

park happiness

georgia greenery.

i've been meaning to be one of those people

who wake up at 5:30 a.m. to take their dog for a 3 mile run.

no, really, they exist. weird, right?

well, i feel bad for lars. if i don't take him to the park, 

he doesn't get much exercise. 

in fact, he's lately resorted to chasing his tail for minutes on end.

i think he knows its the only way he can burn some energy.

but, until i'm one of those heroic oddly-early-rising people,

we go to the dog park. 

the greenery makes me so happy.

twoating

the twittersphere.

i just think this is hilarious.

i may have a twitter account for a certain class project,

but i'm still skeptical about it.

maybe i would have more fun if there were little birds talking to me.

:)

brain freeze

Popsicle walk.

the nicest thing about where we live now is that

we can walk to the grocery store and coffee shop.

i won't comment on how often that happens,

it's just the fact that we can. 

well, i had a popsicle craving tonight, so

jazz and i took a little evening stroll. 

i love living this close to a store.

when we were first married (and very poor), 

we used to walk to the gas station down the street

for some ice cream treats. 

this is the life:

we may have gotten two boxes of popsicles. 

for variety, you know?

another writing post

freelancing work. 

in one of my classes this quarter, 

we're collaborating with a monthly publication in Atlanta

to produce their july issue....tonight we went to their

office and pitched our story ideas. 

From left: Matt, Krystal, Wendy Binns (owner), Collin Kelley (editor), Osayi.

a writer's life

a writing day. 

do you have melancholy days? days when you can only think

of all the roads not taken? days when it seems like things

weren't mean to be like this, at all? 

today was a little like that.

on such days, i think it's important to take a notebook 

and a really good book (like philip roth's goodbye columbus)

to a favorite marketplace/bakery/cafe (like alon's) 

and have a nice cup of coffee plus some colorful treats.

confession: i may have done this yesterday too.

the weather was incredible. i kind of didn't want to ever leave -