change

“They always say time changes things but you actually have to change them yourself.”

– Andy Warhol

deck the halls

Or (in this case) the fireplace.

Despite the fact that I’ll be home for the holidays, I wanted to bring some Christmas spirit to my apartment. A miniature tree (the first time I’ve had a real fir!), some lights, a Nutcracker, and a couple stockings seemed like just the right amount of festive. It wouldn’t really feel like December without decorations — nor without some holiday baking:

Have you started decorating yet?

artist or astronaut?

The following is an excerpt from my journal at age 7:

Should I be an artist or astronaut? Well, as it turns out, I’m neither. But I guess being a biologist puts me somewhere in the middle? I do science but sometimes it involves a lot of drawing (signaling pathways, schematics of a cell, etc).

How have your plans changed since you were in elementary school? Are you pursuing what you always thought you would or did you land in a completely different field?

it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas

I am now officially in the holiday spirit.

It usually takes me until Thanksgiving to start feeling festive but this year I’m feeling it early. It might have something to do with ordering tickets to see The Nutcracker and going to “Light Up Night,” an event my city has every year when they decorate downtown for the holidays. There were Christmas lights and trees everywhere, a public ice skating rink, shop windows filled with gingerbread houses, a multi-cultural Santa Claus exhibit, and Christmas music echoing through the streets. Even the weather was Christmas-y: chilly with that crisp, going-to-snow-later feel. Needless to say, the (albeit early) holiday cheer was impossible to resist.

Today? I’m looping the full Nutcracker suite while I clean my apartment, reminiscing about long days in rehearsal for the production, and eagerly anticipating my trip home for the holidays.

‘Tis the season.

kinds of love

“There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.”

– F. Scott Fitzgerald

where to post your status

In case you’re unsure of where (or whether) to post a status online, here’s a wonderful flowchart created by Daryl Lang over at Breaking Copy. I stumbled across it today and thought it was too good not to share.

mistakes i won’t repeat

• Put a book in the suitcase I intend to check and expect to remember to take it out before I get through security at the airport (I won’t)
• Leave my umbrella at home when the forecast calls for rain and the sky is completely overcast (unless I want to be soaked by the time I get to work)
• Assume that if I have a GPS, I cannot possibly get lost (I will)
• Believe that anything heals other than time, chocolate, and good friends (nothing else does)
• Try to grocery shop at Giant Eagle right before a Steelers game (good luck finding a cart!)

some things never change

such as my preference for studying with the assistance of espresso.
(or my tendency to take pictures of my coffee).

more or less

more coffee
more music
more reading
more real life interactions
more hugs
more laughter
more chocolate
more dancing
more hope
less internet
less drama
less worrying
more time
more joie de vivre

this is a real dilemma