Sometimes change is good.

Messed around the other day with an external flash . . . it's not my normal style, but it was fun to try out something new.

My pre-professional ballet dancer sister is performing in A Midsummer Night's Dream with the main company at the Performing Arts Center all weekend...which means she's been out rehearsing until 10pm every night this week. For a ten year old, she sure means business!

She had to put her hair up in curlers for the show and I thought it looked so wonderfully weird and Dr. Seuss-like.

And speaking of change, I got to messing around with the blog design when I was supposed to be studying for a history
test . . . so voila, here you go. Figured it was time for something new. Maybe it'll motivate me to get back into the swing of blogging. ;)

(random pictures from lately, including but not limited to, pipes found at the river, a Scout ceremony, banana bread with chocolate chips, rollerblading down the street, pretty afternoon light, etc etc)

Well.

It's happening.

I'm growing up.

Oh sure, I've been growing up for seventeen years and one month. But it's a gradual kind of thing, you know? It's like that John Green quote that's been going around for awhile: "One day you're seventeen and you're planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life."

Today I found myself playing mom again; my dad went in for some relatively minor surgery this morning but complications arose and they're keeping him for the night. So! That left me skipping class and racing home to be chauffeur for my sibs and feed them lunch and dinner (both involved bread; creative cooking lessons and/or a trip to the grocery may be in order).

And it's weird, you know. Driving around. Going to class. Going to work. Planning for life after high school. Like, I've thought about being this age for so long and now that I'm here, it's not nearly as glamorous as it sounded when I was younger.

It'll probably be like that, too, when I'm twenty-two, and twenty-five, and thirty-one, and so on and so forth.

Life has been...well, boring. I am a very, very restless person. Not that I'm proud of that! But I am. And I've been trying to cherish these "boring" times because I know I'm gonna miss them. Maybe not immediately. But I will, someday. It's my last "normal" year at home and...yeah.

So, growing up. Right now it's involving reading travel books and doing lots of homework and occasionally (occasionally) making 100s on assignments (!!) and being mistaken for Taylor Swift more times than I care to admit and wearing too many gray sweaters and failing again and again but trying again and trying to be a good friend/daughter/sister and, most of all, being perpetually tired.

Oh, and I saw a guy whip out his Nintendo DS today and start playing on it, so that happened too. I get such joy out of people watching. WOW people are fascinating. And I don't mean that sarcastically. They really, truly are. (And speaking of people, if you have a moment, read this article. Really, really fascinating.)

Peace out.

(here's where I would insert an emoji if this were instagram)

Oof. Will ya get a load of that? Callyn is like a pretty little fairy. So beautiful and sweet and kind. I don't think she can say a bad thing about anyone! I love her dearly. We got together on the most gorgeous of fall days and I made her model for me. She's a natural in front of the camera. I posed her, leaned in to get the shot, and, on multiple occasions, jumped around squealing cause she's just that perfect.

Callyn, you're my favorite. Muah.

October rolls in.

Restlessness and mediocrity and blah-ness and inadequacy.

I don't really know who I am or what I'm doing right now. I feel like I've forgotten how to write, how to photograph, how to create.

Seventeen and confused and that's how it's supposed to be, right?

But also:

joy and wonder and love and so much happiness you could cry.

Or laugh.

Or both.

My biggest sister Alina was in town for a few weeks. I love her muchly. And I hate that she and Amanda live over four thousand miles away.

We went out for lunch the other day and there was a little bug at the bottom of her salad, bathed in vinegar. I guess that's the risk you take at farm-to-table restaurants? But she got her lunch for free, as is right, and she didn't mind too much because goodness knows this family is into discounts ;)

"Cherish this, cause when it don't last, you wish you did."

The Mowgli's are ringing true.