And the thing is, I always thought you were my Levin and you were only ever my Count Vronsky.

In other news, I just got asked to shoot a friend's wedding. What the what?!

Why are my friends

So

Darn

Cute

???

A few friends of mine went on tour to the Midwest and East Coast over winter break. In a few weeks they'll be an official band at SXSW. And they are the sweetest, most big-hearted boys. I'm so proud of them.

I have spent the past couple of hours on this site. I absolutely adore it.

This is what I look like whilst doing French homework. Confused. So confused. Remember when I used to make all A's in French? Remember that? Yeah, those days are long gone now. Much like my youthful good looks and charm. Nah, I'm kidding about the charm part.

Mmmmmm TodayTodayToday

My alarm went off at 7 to watch the sunrise but thanks to all the clouds, no sunrise. I saw a sweet message from Charles and a Volvo picture from Jenna. I didn't see that it had a UT sticker on it and I was confused as to why she was sending me a phone picture of a Volvo but I'm usually confused when I wake up so yeah. I was going to legit wake up and read some more of A Million Mile in a Thousand Years but it was still dark out and Kimmie came home last night so I didn't want to rudely wake her with my lamp.
I woke up again at exactly 8:45 a.m. and because I had work 9 I let out a quietish "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck". I pulled on clothes as fast as I could, desperately tried to straighten my bangs in .5 seconds, kissed Kitty goodbye and drove to work instead of walking. But I made it there just in time. INSANE!
Today the reading room was super busy but luckily I had time to order my and Sarah's Elton John tickets online! And even though I logged on at exactly 10 a.m., the best seats we could get are in the Mezzanine section, row 14. That better be worth $100.25 each! We're so happy though. Emily Childress was hoping to come with us and she asked her parents for a ticket as her birthday gift but naturally they were uneasy about spending that much money. She had no hard feelings though and I promised her that Sarah and I would pick her out the tackiest concert tee we can find! I can't wait. April 10 cannot come soon enough. I'm pretty sure attending an Elton John concert is a life goal for 90% of the population.
After work I picked out some plants for the house. I got a little leafy plant and a pot of baby pink daisies for our room and a fern for the kitchen. I need more though. Many more. But those 3 were $25! What?!
I sat down to read, got through a few chapters and then napped until 430. I'm not sure how long. My ebay cardigans came in! And they're actually totally perfect. I needed a new white one because my $4 one was $4 for a reason. And even though I love the grey cardigan i already have, I'm glad I have the new one since it's a lighter shade and has sweet little 3/4 sleeves. I wore it with my pink tule skirt today and felt like a total ballerina. Okay sorry, end sweater rave. I have 10 cardigans. I'm in love with them.
Jordan came over at like 530 and we started making food for Jason's housewarming party! He made salsa and I baked my mother's bran muffins aka my favorite muffins in the WORLD. I've been trying to make these muffins for the past 8 years and always failed. Always. There were times when they were so bad that even my dogs wouldn't eat them. But finally I did it all right! I texted my mom with the great news and then Jordan ate like 6 before I finally packaged them up so we could leave for the party.
The gathering was really nice, just talking and food. The boys always talk about their Swiss friend Phil and I finally got to meet him! I was so great and he's like Charlie's Swiss counterpart. Danny and I talked about his photography thesis and I told him about some places in San Antonio and Blanco that he could shoot. I talked to him about how I've pretty much just quit photography because I can't take the competitive spirit. He was totally understanding and told me about how he makes it a point to get people's Flickrs and websites and invite them out for drinks to talk about their work and their goals. There should be more of that. Dear fellow UT NPPA members, take note. Too many of you are rude and pompous and I don't care how much better you are than me, you're not going to get far enough with that kind of attitude.
Anyway, the night went by really fast. Brett and Daniel Vega came over with Charlie for a little while. They'd been in the studio recording their EP all day long. I'm so proud of them. They're an official SXSW band this year and they're playing 6 or 7 shows throughout the week. Love them. Their shows are so different now though. There's a lot of drunk teenage girls trying to flirt with them and a lot of drunk college girls climbing onto their stage. Charlie calls them the "Woo Girls" because they hold their drinks up and yell "woooooooo" a lot while their nipples hang out of their tops. What the what?! hahahaha Those poor boys
I got crazy tired and Jordan drove me home so here I am, lounging on my couch and eating green grapes. Perfection.

Tomorrow I'm making some more of the bran muffins because everyone at the party liked my muffins and ate them all. Damn them. I remember telling Jordan that I hoped everyone hated them so I could have them all to myself. Mmmm those muffins. And since they're bran I'm not counting them as "sugar" so I'm not including them in Lent. But I did accidentally eat a brownie tonight and had to talk Danny into eating my fruit crepe for me once I realized what I did. Anyway, I'm gonna spend the day with Rebecca and maybe seeing Valentine's Day with Pam and Sarah. Then to Mosaic. Then hopefully dinner with everyone as a big group. Then homework. I desperately need to pick a new CD cover to redesign for class!


LoveLoveLove all the sweet babes in my life

I love John Muir. He's probably my favorite person that has ever lived. i don't count Jesus because yeah, does he actually count as a person? I don't think so. Above my bed I have a poster of some valley in Yosemite with a John Muir quote. I can't remember what it says. Everything that man said is worth quoting on a poster. I want to marry a John Muir. I want to marry someone who wants to be out of the city more than anything, and then go to shows and movies and parties when there's no other option. We can climb trees and nap in the grass. And he'll always recycle.
I just finished Episode 3 of Ken Burn's national parks documentary and there are at least 2 very influential figures in the national park movement that changed their lives after they met John Muir. They became these crazy advocates for protecting American wilderness.
Some other people picked up and moved and left everything behind to go work in the Grand Canyon. Cody did that. I love Cody. He was lost for a pretty long time, and then one day he announced that he'd gotten a job at the Grand Canyon and now he's so happy there.
I'm looking at grad school all of a sudden. I want to be a librarian for a little longer, I want to be surrounded by books and people that love them every single day. But if I'd rather be surrounded by trees or mountains then what am I doing?
I want go work at a hotel in the mountains. They're always looking for people for that. No one wants to move out to the middle of no where and be with the same people every single day just for a low-paying job. But what other option is there? I wouldn't mind folding other people's towels all day as long as I got a view and a day off every week.
I really looked into it last winter. Some night when Charles didn't feel like talking I watched Legends of the Fall and its encore presentation. During the second round, I googled and applied to hotels and resorts in the mountains. I figured if I wasn't going to be with him come summer, I wanted to be with the trees. I got a few replies but I didn't reply back.
I wish the clouds from today would go away. I can't watch the sunrise if I can't see it.

1. Stargazing pun battling with Brett for the win! I luhv puns. And I have a huge crush on Brett. I'm driving down to San Marcos tomorrow night to go stargazing with him :)

2. I was talking to my mom on the phone and she was saying how she's not allowed to eat anything until after her heart surgery at 6 a.m. tomorrow. What did I say right after that? "Oh yeah, I'm just polishing off a pint of Ben & Jerry's." Shame. On. Me. I didn't even mean for it to come out, it just did. Sorry mom...

3. Today we had a professional graphic designer/photographer come in to speak to my class. And he spent a good 10 minutes ripping on photographers who pay for fancy 5Ds when Rebel XTs are the same thing, just plastic. It made me so happy. I was talking to the editor of Texas State's University Star on Friday night and he was saying how I should upgrade to a better camera. Thanks, but having a hunk that costs a $1,000 (including lens and flash) is quite enough for me. I don't even want to touch a fancy camera!

4. I'm giving up sweets for my first Lent. I spend probably like $30 a week on candy and ice cream and pie and then I rib on my sister for spending that much on makeup when she could be doing better things with her money. So I'm giving it up completely, I'm only eating fruit. And the money I'd spend on sugary goodies is instead going to a different global hunger alleviation group each week. Pam just polished off my strawberry Pop-Tarts, my heart cried a little inside.

5. Made two Dean's Lists in two years! Heeeeeey

This afternoon I ran a stop sign. Why? Because I was distracted by a beautiful Oak tree that would be perfect for climbing.

I feel this sums me up very well.

Let's please take a second to cross our fingers and hope that

my faith in him isn't a mistake

I have the most beautiful friends. I love how all of my friends are so completely different from one another but we all get along all the time because we're so full of love for one another. And it's not even that we're best friends or anything like that, they just happen to all be so amazing. They're such all such a blessing to my life. I used to think that things just had to be a certain way, that I was expecting too much from friendship. But when I'm around my true friends and I see how perfectly the universe can align and how big my smile gets, I know that's what I deserve and that I was wrong before for settling when I didn't have to. Friends are my everything, they're my Heaven and Earth. Whether you're my best friend or that guy I met on Tuesday, you mean the world to me. When your place in my life starts to fuzz or fade, my heart breaks. Seeing a true friend next to me smiling always makes me so much stronger. I have a friend, someone I once loved more than anyone in the world and maybe I still do, but he breaks my heart almost every day in almost every way. It's hard to stay strong and committed to saving our friendship, but I try. Always remember that you're worth everything. Don't give up on people but don't let them hurt you either.

Tonight a handful of friends came over, some that I've only known a few days now. But we threw in SingStar and knew no shame in our awful (awful!) singing abilities. We're all dancing around and singing and joking and there's no expectations, there's no having to act cool or worry about how you must look to everyone else. The fun had to end sometime but I'm glad it's a weekly ritual to get together and do just as we please.

There was almost a huge cat fight between Photojournalism and Radio-Television-Film students in the CMA building on campus tonight. The two groups are pretty much always at odds, always trying to top one another in "coolness". Personally, I think all Photo and all RTF students everywhere need to just get over themselves. Your egos will do you no good.

[As a photo student, I felt it clear that the RTF students were at fault tonight. So I'm just as bad. Okay, not quite.]

I love all of these, for various reasons

[Disclaimer: I snagged all of these from Miss Kaelah Bee!]

Library Adventures!

This morning at work, I was shown a real life treasure map! The story included all the

following intrigues...

!Indians!

!Silver!

!Murder!

!Forgery!

!Conquistadors!

!Priests!

!$1 Million!

The best part: At the HRC we have a book that contains a very generous clue.

I have entirely too many guilty pleasures when it comes to television! Right now, I'm watching The Real Desperate Housewives of Orange County. Pamela and I watch this and try to give them advice. Clearly they're not listening to us! I love it and I feel no shame. No shame at all.