Out with the old... in with the old?

So I've been cleaning out my childhood room this past week since moving home. I'm combining and throwing away little pieces of my past in order to move on with the future. In doing this, I found a poem book I was assigned to write in 9th grade. Mrs. Joiner wanted us to write 16 different poems. Some of them had to be lyrical, haikus, ballads, narratives, sonnets... a little bit of everything. Re-reading these has made me realize two things. One, I'm extremely glad blogs weren't popular when I was going through my emo phase, or who knows what kind of emotional drama would be lost out in the stratosphere of the internet. Two, I am still that 14 year-old girl.

philos

It's weird to think about coming home. I figured the last time I left Cleveland, I would drive away trying to fight off the flooding memories, and as I did I realized one thing: Change doesn't hurt, it's the memory that does. It reminded me of something I read about by the man named UG. UG was a man who rejected the basis of thought, a philosopher of sorts if that's possible, and he was Indian, which just makes him the perfect sort of guru for my life. He once said:
"There is no such thing as death. What you have are ideas about death, ideas which arise when you sense the absence of another person. Your own death, or the death of your near and dear ones, is not something you can experience. What you actually experience is the void created by the disappearance of another individual and the unsatisfied demand to maintain the continuity of your relationship with that person for a non-existent eternity."
This reminds me of moving. If I'm sad, it's because I am experiencing a void, nothing more, nothing less.

Calling Baton Rouge

This past weekend, I undertook driving 8 hours one way to see a dear old friend/professor of mine for the weekend. Crazy? Almost. The distance from Cleveland, TN to Baton Rouge, LA is the same as driving home for me... which I would never think to do in a weekend. However, spending some good old-fashioned quality down time with an old friend seemed like a good payoff for the trip, especially since I'll be leaving next weekend and won't be able to see her anymore.


4 suitcases, one dog, and Google directions and we were on our way!



Jason, the aforementioned ex-professor and current dear friend was kind enough to make up a nice little to-do list of things we MUST do while in Baton Rouge, of which included: eating beignets (quite scrumptious), eating crawfish, crab, and GATOR (yikes). I'm from Florida, home to the Gators, and never have I thought to undertake that.


We also went to a cute little Whole Foods store where Jason does all of his grocery shopping, since the rain had prevented us from accomplishing other things on our to-do list.




Fresh Cranberries! And Celery soda? yep. I hear it's not too bad though.

Did I mention one of the main reasons of this trip was to see New Moon?
Outrageous?!
Almost certainly
But Jason and Ali and I have a tradition of seeing the movies together... so we did. :)

It's My Life

Oh, my life can be oh so wonderful sometimes. Meeting new people that I actually enjoy hanging out with is one of my most favorite things in life. Tonight was spent with the Pembertons, which is always an intellectual stimulation that my brain doesn't quite often get in such a small the-only-intellect-we-need-is-Bible-intellect type of town. Hanging out at Nick's apartment is shortly becoming one of my favorite past times. He lives by himself in a large two-bedroom flat in house that's over 100 years old. I love old houses, especially because this house is so large, it's been divided up into tons of little apartments. There's so much history in the creaky hardwood floors and paint-chipped walls. It's absolutely intoxicating to me. I have to live somewhere like that one day. Other than his apartment being in such a cool location (the historic district), Nick also converted his second bedroom into a theater room. (There's a projecter screen with elevated seating.) Not too bad for a college student. Nick's apartment is fun because it's nicely decorated and always clean, a fact which I am incredibly impressed by considering he's a boy. Plus, people just stop by randomly, so you never know who you're going to hang out with. Tonight was Laney, John Watkins, a married couple, and Jason Dooley. All fun characters. We just sat around and watched tv, making witty comments which was a perfect end to my day.

La-La-La-La-La-La-La Life is Wonderful

The past couple weeks have been utterly amazing. The amount of life goals I've been accomplishing as of late is phenomenal. I've gone fishing (off of a bridge), hiking in Tellico, fired a gun, walked along railroad tracks across a bridge and got photographic proof. I am utterly amazed at how happy I am.