since we last met

i took these photographs…

find the rest on my flickr

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…and did these things

// signed a lease for a tiny studio apartment in the heart of shadyside, an awesome pittsburgh neighborhood

// listened to + bought a bunch of my favorite artists on vinyl, such as the swell season, coldplay, sarah vaughn, and joni mitchell

// bought ballet flats i won’t be able to wear for weeks

// wondered how i survived this long without watching penguins hockey in HD on a plasma TV

// became giddy with excitement when it was announced that billy collins will have a new book of poetry out in april, and sondre lerche will have a new album coming out in june

// watched this video over and over and over:

// survived some of the most unpredictable/insane/annoying winter weather we’ve had in ohio in quite a while

// lived on breakfast blend coffee, string cheese, + handfuls of almonds

// wrote three papers, took five quizzes + two exams, and made, like, a thousand and one notecards to study

// missed all of your blogs terribly :)

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what’s been going in with you, my dears?

xo Alison

p.s. thank you all so so much for the outpouring of support over what happened to gabby. it made the healing process manageable, and means the world to me to know i have such a strong supportive group of lovely blogging friends. hugs!

as long as gabby

hello.

how are you?

i’m okay. i didn’t plan on taking such a lengthy blogging break. the last few days have been a blur of classes, errands, oolong tea, writing, hockey games, and schoolwork. it’s also been a very sad time: recently, my cat gabby died. she was the stray we’ve been taking care of for quite some time. if you’re a regular reader, you’re very familiar with her black markings and gravity defying antics (which i’ve catalogued on my flickr stream). we’re big cat people; we’ve looked after countless homeless kitties over the years (and of course have the three that live inside), but none ever stayed as long as gabby, or became part of our animal family in the same way. she was hit by a car right in front of me. it was wretched, devastating, and shocking. although i know there are many, many things in life more important than pets, it hit me very hard to lose her in such a violent way. i’m still reeling from it, days later, still expecting to find her paw prints in the snow or her pink nose sticking out of the house we built her on the porch. she was such a sweet, vivacious cat. i really, really miss her.

to be honest, the last two weeks have been rough for reasons besides gabby. things are starting to look up, though, so i’m concentrating on the good things happening right now, like my mother’s recent doctor’s appointment going well, my brand new turntable arriving in the mail, the pens maintaining their playoff position despite losing geno for the rest of the season (and an insane amount of other injuries), and taking these february-y photographs:

check out the rest on my flickr

what have you been up to, my darlings? please share anything exciting, boring, lovely, or mundane that happened…i want to know it all!

xo Alison

yes, please!

GLEENA SHOP

shop gleena here

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hello, my darlings! sorry i’ve been somewhat absent this week. i’m still getting into the swing of the new semester which is proving to be quite busy already. plus, my mother is having some cancer-related tests done today, which weighs on my mind for a while beforehand, so to be honest it hasn’t been the most awesome of weeks. as of last night (which featured a much-needed night of theatre, cocktails, and funny friends), things are starting to look up though, so i’ll definitely be making time to catch up on blogs this weekend.

have a wonderful day!

xo Alison

*gleena first seen on creature comforts

this weekend i

took these photos

check out the rest on my flickr

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finished this poem

Bridesmaids

Stuck in the hallways of our unplayed pianos
while you read Yeats in the bathroom
like some slow, backwards foreplay
we fast forward through until
it’s just cold linoleum in natural light
instead of brunch with phantom bridesmaids,
thinking of the undiscovered country
in the marrow of your expatriate bones,
the rug burn I mistook for a birth mark,
the scars you mistook for laugh lines,
until we are hypnotized
by our own dying diamonds,
coughing up our own dust.

— by me

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listened to this song (a lot)

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loved these things

// watching the pens beat the canes despite being without sid + geno

// the fact that ALL of my classes transferred from my current university to the university pittsburgh (yippie!)

// adding several lovely images to my tumblr

// spending my friday night in cleveland watching my brother play in the pit for a show at playhouse square

// snacking on baked chips + strong coffee + baby carrots

// lusting after this gorgeous onyx gold leaf necklace

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what were you up to this weekend?

xo Alison

p.s. there’s a new-ish post up on my personal blog!

rough + real

“like a glove // like the love // that had finally, finally found me

then i knew // in the CRYSTALLINE knowledge of you…”

~ crystal by stevie nicks

one of my favorite things about having a tumblr is browsing my own archive. i love the way they set it up, like bricks making up a garden wall or tiles on a kitchen floor. i look over it pretty often as it is constantly evolving with every image i post + reblog. it’s like a mosaic of my interests + aesthetics, a memory board of my specific style of inspiration.

i was looking through it recently, and just like i realized how much i really love photographs of coffee + tea (as evident here, here, and here), i also realized that i’ve been very smitten with precious stones, gemstones, amethyst, tourmaline, crystals, things from the earth lately. a year ago i dropped earth science because i was surrounded by post-secondary kids in a room that was overbooked by twenty seats, taught by a professor who barely spoke english teaching a subject i didn’t have to take, but apparently something stuck. the hallway leading to that classroom is lined with glass cases filled with these beautiful chunks of minerals, so rough + real. that was the only thing i liked about my brief encounter with natural science, and it evidently helped solidify, or maybe spark, my love of these old, almost magical objects.

here are some of my favorites…

{one. two. three. four. five. six. seven. eight. nine. ten. eleven. twelve. thirteen. fourteen. fifteen. sixteen. seventeen.}

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what materials have you been loving lately?

xo Alison