Don't let the bed bugs bite

First, let me post a correction: I forgot to give photo credit to my wonderful paparazzi this past summer, Damien Favre.  I wish he were always around so I could actually have photos, but at least I have some great memories eternalized because of him. Thank you, Damien!

So I can't sleep.  There is so much to do and I want to do it all, and I get so distracted along the way that I end up not doing much of anything.  This seems to be a theme.  I'm good at getting things done, but there just are not enough hours in the day.  Lately, with the weather so cold and miserable, I need a lot of sleep, and food, and time to complain.

For those of you unaware, I was also attacked by these nasty little creatures most likely at my sister's apartment in the city.  I hadn't been allergic to anything until my 20s and now I need to take Claritin every morning just to breathe, I can't use medicine with Sulfa, and bed bugs make me look like leper, not to mention I get so itchy I can't stand myself. Who knew bedbugs are actually an allergic reaction?  Some of you have probably had these little guys crawl all over in the night and never even knew.  

Go figure.  

This is a great resource for those of you with a similar disposition:

http://www.bed-bug.org/

Anyways, I just wanted to post to give credit to Damien for his wonderful photo posted last week of me and my niece and hopefully write until I fall a...

This too shall pass

Call it a seasonal slump, call it whatever you want, but I think we're all getting a little sick and tired of this weather.  It has been one of the slushiest, most depressing winter seasons of my life- probably the worst that I can remember.  I've been feeling lazy and pretty much apathetic, which is not like me.  All I can do is blame it on the weather. (Note, I'm also blaming the weather for why I have been so lazy about posting.)

I normally hate when people complain about winter.  If you live in the Northeast and act surprised every winter that it's cold and it snows, then just move already.  No one is making you stay.  But at this point, that is exactly how I feel.  I just want to get out of here already... And if it weren't for the snow and my serious lack of funds, I would be on a Caribbean cruise sipping mojitos right now.  But I guess it's all what you make of it, right?

I love the seasons and we can't have spring if we never have winter, and the worse the winter, the better the spring, right?  It is the first of February and in a month it will be March already; that glorious month they say goes in like a lion and out like a lamb.  When you're feeling down and dysfunctional, just remember: This Too Shall Pass.

This post brought to you by the letter S:  Snow, Spring, then Soon it will be Summer, Sunglasses, and Sand.

Here I am with my niece this summer in the park.  Sun and Sunglasses. SO wonderful.

It's been way too long

This is really an easy-way-out post but I've been actually pretty busy lately (my usual internship, errands, friends, driving back and forth to CT constantly) so I haven't had a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts but I need to just say that I WILL BE WRITING SOON.  I have a bunch of drafts started about some pretty (what I think is) interesting stuff: music, jobs, etc. I've also ordered a bunch of books about online publishing and HTML/ Web Design so look for some attempts at changes here, as well as photograph. So stay tuned.

The Resolution

So I've been procrastinating for a few weeks.  I've been busy, for sure, but I've also been doing a lot of what you might call "self-discovery."  After my "experience" last semester, which wrought me at times with self-doubt and resentment, I've become determined to have a clean start this year and really focus on being that person that I want to be.  There is no better time to start than now...  I've got a new internship and a new outlook on things, and there was just no way I was going to start this semester with a messy room (although it probably will not last too long).

In going through the enormous pile of papers and notebooks and odds and ends that has accumulated over the past, oh, four years, and has lived in the corner of my bedroom since I moved into this apartment almost two years ago, I felt renewed and empowered.

Yet, I also realized something else.  At the very bottom of the plastic bin where these papers were living, was something I had been searching for for at least a couple of years now: a film my friends and I had made during our senior year of high school for Independent Study.  It was like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, an unexpected prize.

I watched it almost immediately.  It's a film about 20 minutes long called "Setback" and it "showcases"the snowboarding "skills" of myself, my best friend, our high school boyfriends, and our good friend Tiina (a Finnish exchange student that year) and also highlights the setbacks we endured while making the film (injuries, illnesses, finances, and scheduling problems). Not only did it bring back great memories, but it reminded me of how hard we had worked on it.  Between the research, the filming, the editing, and the snowboarding, we spent more time on that film that year than anything else.  It really reminded me how far a little hard work can go.  But mostly, how important it is to work at the things you love.

I never make New Years Resolutions; mostly out of fear that I will never be able to keep them.  However, this year I am resolving to just do more of what I love, to be the woman that the high school senior me knew I would become, and who I think I have become, yet sometimes forget to be.  If that makes any sense at all.

Life is about living and the key is doing what makes you feel alive.  This year I'm going to write more (hopefully this blog will help!), read in my free time, reteach myself how to play my guitar, and hopefully go snowboarding at least once.  Everything else will fall into place.