The song I am listening to now is way too appropriate for the way my life has been the past few days. I will say no more.

I was going to say that I must be a people repellent, but I have realized that the problem does not lie with me. Stupid world.

Anyways, I'm going to be seeing Blackmore's Night perform in November! They have decided to add a short US tour and have decided to come to Charlotte again. I am beyond thrilled. For a listing of their US tour dates go here: [link] . I'm ridiculously excited. They can put on a great performance and hopefully I can finally get a picture of myself and Candace thats not completely black. She was so amazing at the last show by staying on stage signing autographs and taking pictures. Hmm...I kinda wonder if they will make a surprise appearance at CRF....

Wednesday night I am attending a lecture by an underwater archaeologist. Apparently she does a lot of work around and in the area of Egypt. After some research and findings she has reconstructed what an Egyptian ship may have looked like. So that should be pretty fun. (Okay, I'm weird. I consider lectures fun.)

Hopefully this weekend I can get out for a bit and get some more shots of Charleston. I really want to go back to the Unitarian Church cemetery. That has to be one of my most favorite places here in Charleston. (Kinda morbid O_o) And I would like to catch a day when our Cistern Yard is not crowded to get some better shots there. And I would love to get some decent pictures of our fantastic southern homes.

Speaking of which...considering I am going through the process of trying to find a job and save money for field school...does any thing that at least a few of my pictures may be worth putting up as prints? I highly doubt that I would actually sell anything, but I wouldn't mind trying. But I thought I would ask everyone's opinion first. Plus, if I happen to make a little bit of money out of this it will be put back to help me pay for field school. So just let me know what you think and if you have a particular favorite then tell me which.

Lastly, I feel like experimenting with cooking a little. Does anywhere care to share some good recipes that are relatively simple?

Ugh...I need to go study for Stats now. I have a quiz tomorrow. Oh joy!

One of the hardest parts of life is realizing when you are not wanted anymore...

"Curtain Call"
Tori Amos

Ebony beauty, passed this shade
The looking glass, reflects
Then a voice, calls me back
This is just circumstance; it is not personal
Oh no, it never is
Then you ram your hand in your bag for a little friendly substance
By the time you're 25, they will say
You've gone and blown it
By the time you're 35, I must confide
You will have, blown them up
Right on queue, just act surprised, when they invite you to take you, curtain call
You climbed china's wall;
You, curtain call
I've done what I've done, and it has the ultimate consequence
Then a voice calls me back
This is not business, no it's more like, spiritual
It's not what it is
Then you ram your hand in your bag for a little protection

By the time you're 25, they will say
You've gone and blown it
By the time you're 35, I must confide
You will have, blown them up
Right on queue, just act surprised, when they invite you to take you, curtain call
You've climbed, china's wall
You, curtain call
The closed china's wall
Curtain call

Ebony beauty, passed this shade
The looking glass reflects

Life would not be dynamic if it were not constantly changing. Some people hate change and prefer everything to be static. However, some routines bore me. I like spontaneity. I enjoy change. I like the feel of change because I suppose change makes me feel like I have some sort of control over my life. Does not change start with ourselves anyways? We have to be the accelerators of our own forward motion. Besides I'm a restless person anyways and always wanting better. The simple lull of life really doesn't appeal to me. Needless to say I never want my life to get boring. So I'm pushing on the gas pedal. I am slowly gearing up into forward motion that will help propel me into a career and a not so boring life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Conclusions

There has been a bit of mental turmoil over the past week that I have not spoken much of to anyone except my mother. I am trying to be better at keeping my personal problems to myself or at least to my leather bound journal. So I will not divulge much in detail.

I have come to the conclusion that I must stop trying so hard to get people to like me. In the end it really only has fall backs. I have never been the social butterfly, gods no. But I do attempt to not be so shy. Besides how will people ever get to know me if I stand there mute? However, its not the strangers I'm worried about. Its the people that are supposedly meant to be close to me. To put it simply I believe the summer has changed a lot of things. Each of us has come back a little different.

Regardless, people never really take the time to get to know me. A male coworker from over the summer told me the last time we worked together that it took a long time to really get to know me, but once he did he thought I was a great person. I suppose its just a sign of the times. Ya know. Everyone wants everything instantly. Well, sorry folks, I don't come instantly. Plus, what's the fun at knowing everything at once?

Also, I hate when I act randomly silly or say something and get looked at as if I have grown a second head. My response is I just tilt my head at them and look confused. I'm just being me people. So accept that.

I have to say I am very lucky here though. All of you take me for my quirky eccentrics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phases

In the same way life changes so does people. You pull together and you fall apart. Sometimes you prefer certain people over others and it can even reverse. It may be easier to say that life should be looked at as a series of phases.

I sort of feel as if I have passed from one and entered into another one. I cannot quite find a way to say how I feel that things have changed. But some inner part of myself knows that I have. Maybe in a way I feel like I have matured a little more. But I believe this too has a lot to do with how the past few weeks have been. I feel like I have learned a lot and opened my eyes a little wider.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Baby Steps

Forward momentum, albeit it in very small spurts. One of the hardest parts about my summer was having to work while all the friends and colleagues went away to field school. It was daunting and depressing at the same time. I nearly pleaded with fate. I have worked very hard to get to where I am today and admittedly nothing irks me more than watching people get things handed to them.

But chin up, yes? Everything happens for a reason and I will have my day. And my day may be coming very soon. So far it is not much of anything, but a few pieces are slowly coming together.

When I applied for financial aid for this school year I got more money than I did last year to help pay for college. After my tuition and housing was covered I have around $2,000 left over that got deposited into my banking account. The thought that went through my head, "Well, damn, there is my money for field school!" And let's not forget that I will get another deposit like that for my Spring semester. At that moment field school never looked more like a reality. Field school next summer is officially feasible if nothing bad happens between now and then.

So there has been a small series of things that adds up to this current moment. I had made up my mind that depending on where I went to field school I wanted to make a side trip to see my former roommate in England. Of course, that would mean I would have to at least end up in Ire... ]]> *wayfaringbard http://wayfaringbard.deviantart.com/journal/26899623/ http://wayfaringbard.deviantart.com/journal/26899623/ Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:30:52 PDT

Facebook | Pandora | AIA

One full day of being back in Charleston before classes start does not seem enough time to get settled back in. Even now, nearly a week later, I'm still trying to sort out my schedule. (Tuesdays are frigheningly long for me. My day begins at 8 am and does not end till 5 pm.) However, it is the weekend now and all of my homework is caught up.

As far as classes go I believe everything should go well. French is scaring me a little. I have grown so rusty over the summer and need some serious refreshing. I suppose though that French is not so scary in comparison to discovering that Dr. Cope really can teach. If he keeps this up I may just have to buy him a beer at the end of the semester.

Enough rubbish about college.

I kind of have a short story idea I want to attempt to work on. It was inspired by the song "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town". Maybe once I get myself all settled and sorted I can make a crack at it. And I think it is gonna be quite different from anything I have done before. It never hurts to branch out from your safety zone.

Tomorrow, after doing a bit of job hunting, I plan to wander around Charleston and get a few photos. I want to go back to the cemeteries. I love the cemeteries here. One of my goals over the next year is to discover more of the pirate history associated with this town. For example, I want to find the location of where Anne Bonny's father's law firm used to be. Maybe I will get even more lucky and find where they used to live. I wonder how many hours in the library and sorting through the archives that is gonna cost me?

Anyways, I'm kinda in the mood to collect more music. Anyone want to make some recommendations? I am open to almost anything as long as its not country or rap. Those are two genres I just cannot get into.

I need to go take my random self elsewhere....

It has been nearly too long. I have missed being active on DA over the summer. More importantly I have missed all of you so it seems I have a lot of catching up to do.

As for my summer I would not say it was the most interesting. I worked all summer long so I hardly had the time nor money to go do much. The two highlights of my summer was visiting a friend in Charleston for one weekend and going to see Phantom of the Opera on stage. I highly recommend seeing Phantom of the Opera. The talent was amazing and the show beautifully done. I was in tears at the end of the show. But summer is over now and its time to start the old grind again. Not that I mind really. I enjoy learning way too much.

First day of classes start tomorrow and luckily for me it is also my longest day of classes. But lets not forget that the first couple days of classes the professors drone on about the syllabus and college policies. And these are all things I have heard a million times already. I believe as far as getting along with my roommate and suitemates everything will be okay. I will just have to deal with the huge cultural gaps between my roommate and I. She made me feel awful yesterday when she gave me several small gifts including a postcard of the city she is from, chopsticks, and some sort of snack. She also asked me for permission to walk on my rug. It was an awkward moment for me, but I'm sure once we learn each others ways better it will go a little more smoothly.

Otherwise, there is not a whole lot to talk about. I'm waiting for my life to get interesting again. So how have all of you been?