2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MY LOVELIES!

i hope you had a safe + wonderful new year’s eve celebration. ours was simple + low-key, which was exactly what i wanted this year. for those of you who read my personal blog, you know that i have an odd, fickle relationship with new year’s eve as a holiday in general, so i’m extra happy that it was so stress-free + satisfying this time around. i’m also happy to be spending new year’s day drinking coffee, uploading photos, watching my brother play x-box, and counting down the minutes until the 2011 NHL winter classic, which features my favorite boys this year in my favorite city. so far today has also included reflecting on the previous year, a year that started out pretty scary with my mother being diagnosed with cancer, but ended up being, overall, surprisingly fun, meaningful, inspiring, and memorable in the best ways possible. so, when i look back on 2010, i will be able to say…

…that was the year i

// discovered florence + the machine, mumford & sons, broken social scenes, laura marling, and local natives

// learned how to say “be careful!” and “climb down from” in latin

// watched the penguins go down in the 2nd round of the playoffs, and started my next season countdown far too early

// was given my very first DSLR camera, appropriately named dexter

// found out what chronic lymphocytic leukemia is

// watched a lot of dexter, BSG, 30 rock, better off ted, damages, mad men, the tudors, and united states of tara

// wrote a lot of poetry i’m actually pretty proud of

// saw my boys, the pittsburgh penguins, two rows from ice level, and two other times besides that

// maintained a good GPA + developed new academic contacts

// bought a lot of records, ballet flats, dishware, and bottles of nail polish

// had countless conversation about creative nonfiction + friendship + supernatural + hockey + psychology + the movie inception

// was lucky enough to see the swell season, bob dylan, hanson, and john mayer in concert (from pretty awesome seats, too)

// became OBSESSED with netflix (how did i ever live without it?)

// took hundreds of photos of coffee + tea, cemeteries, books, cats, shoes, clouds, and my little front porch

// turned twenty-two in my favorite place on earth: consol energy center

// reevaluated every priority i’ve ever had in life while spending countless hours in a squeaky, uncomfortable chair next to my mother’s hospital bed at the cleveland clinic

// wandered through shenandoah valley national park

// drank too many starry night shots + sang along too loudly to songs on the radio in bars on weeknights

// ate my weight in con queso, homemade risotto, and blueberry yogurt

// maintained such a lovely group of writer friends

// worked on being more flexible, brave, and even-tempered

// wasn’t lucky enough to travel very much or very far, but still managed to “go” to many new places

// gave into the smart phone craze, and bought a new laptop

// pinned down what i would like the next five years to be like, and started to make the right decisions to get myself there

// tumblrd, tweeted, and started a personal blog

// developed this blog into the super artistic explosion of random creativity + funk that it is now! (bwahahaha)

// reclaimed my status as the master of my fate, the captain of my soul

☁☁☁

i am already oozing with excitement to find out what 2011 has in store for me, my friends, and for all of you here. i am oh so happy to have “met” (most of) you all during this wildly unpredictable + wonderful, incredibly fast year. have a brilliant new year’s day!

xo Alison

hushed.

RAINY/GREY

the world feels hushed in my corner of the world. it’s been dark + dreary all day, and in the afternoon it started raining cold, november rain, the kind that tries so hard to be snow. i’m thankful to be tucked up inside, writing about the role of mimesis in Thomas Wyatt’s poetry, and partaking in these rainy day staples ::

// a mug of extra hot tea with sugar + half’n'half

// damien rice, the swell season, quiet coldplay, and acoustic john mayer

// an excessive amount of fig + spiced pear candles

// slippers, sweatpants, a huge penguins shirt, and several blankets

// a fresh batch of creamed chipped beef on toast

// jane eyre, a moleskine notebook, and katharine hepburn movies

// these lovely images

{photo credits: one. two. three. four. five.}

☁☁☁

what are your rainy day necessities?

xo Alison

morning coffee + dying blooms

{by mwashin}

as you may have noticed, at the start of every month i post about what’s been on my mind for the last four weeks. it’s a way to recapture, remember, and solidify what i did + loved + experienced during the previous month. september is a very special month, though, so to me it deserves something a little different. even though there are technically a couple weeks left summer, with the start of school + the change in weather, the start of september always feels like the start of fall, so i figured today was the perfect day to collect a string of moments from the summer season as a whole, moments that when i look back on 2010, i will think…

that was the SUMMER when…

* i wrote my best poetry

* i let my hair get ridiculously long, like small of my back long

* i started both a tumblr + and a twitter

* i put hanson’s shout it out on daily rotation

* i didn’t get to see jack or john in concert, which ended up being okay

*i found out i wasn’t as interested in psychology as i thought

* i had my heart broken by sergei gonchar

* i traveled nowhere, except a few day trips to pittsburgh

* i purged four trash bags worth of irrelevant things from my past

* i watched a ton of movies, some good but most bad (sigh)

* i made local natives // the tallest man on earth // balmorhea // mumford & sons // damien rice // sondre lerche the soundtrack of the season

* i organized my life around my mother’s oncology appointments

*  i re-watched veronica mars + sports night + 30 rock each all the way through

* i bought an embarrassing number of purses

* i ate clementines + crusty bread consistently

* i took a thousand photos of  morning coffee + dying blooms + the sky

* i read charles bukowski for the first time

* i was convinced the NHL regular season would never come

* i learned the importance of taking risks

* i fell in love with the wonder that is IKEA

* i welcomed two adorable vagabond cats into our family

* i marveled at the beauty of brandywine falls

* i heard hanson perform madeline + save me live for the first time ever

* i didn’t post for two full weeks, and came back a better blogger

* i said goodbye to billy guerin

* i took these forgotten photos…

when you look back on this summer, what will you remember?

xo Alison

twitter | tumblr

tumblr/love vol/IV

today i

:: watched the last station and was completely blown away

:: had a major balmorhea kind of morning

:: experienced the best banana berry smoothie in the history of blenders

:: woke up after having a dream about humphrey bogart

:: spent some time getting caught up in all the loveliness i’ve been collecting on my tumblr this week…

credits: one. two. three. four. five. six. seven. eight. nine. ten. eleven. twelve. thirteen. fourteen.

❤❤❤

how was your saturday, my dears?

xo Alison

to my clavicle

it’s the beginning of june and here’s what’s been on my mind

{source}

{at the start of each month i stop & take a moment to recount & remember the last four weeks}

:: hockey. i miss it. i miss my boys. i miss post-practice scrums + off day videos + locker room sound bites. i miss the excitement of a break away, the thrill of an OT goal. i miss singing along with the anthems. i miss keeping track of the conference scores +  refreshing my penguins app on the hour + figuring out which games we’re going to go to. i miss scheduling my life around games. i even miss the nhl center ice theme songs. i loath this time of year, with the stress + inevitable disappointment of free agency, and watching the SC final like a kid peaking through a window. and i have been watching the final {go me!} and rooting for the hawks {woooo 2-0!}…but it’s not the same. it’s not my boys. it’s not the long haul of the regular season. it’s not “sorry, i gotta go, the third period is starting.” or “i can’t, we have a game.” basically, i miss one of my biggest passions. is it october yet?

:: muffins.

:: john mayer. for the first time since 2003, JM will be performing a concert in town that i won’t be at. it makes me blue. i know i’ve seen him many, many times, and i know i just saw him in january from our best seats yet {2nd row center!}, but it still doesn’t change the sting of change. and here’s why i adore him ::

:: organization. over the last few weeks i’ve let myself become scattered + disorganized. my room is a mess. my closet is a disaster. my shoes are everywhere. even my writing desk is becoming cluttered. and it’s starting to weigh me down. i sort of feel like there’s a kite attached to my clavicle that continues to pull at me in annoyance every time i try to concentrate, reminding me that things are too. damn. messy. i need to fix that. i need to clear my mind + space + and get back to the real me.

:: films. i’m in a movie rut. over the last couple months i’ve watched a ton of movies, but besides the sublime up in the air and fantastic mr. fox {oooh, i’m sensing a theme}, they’ve mostly fallen flat. the brother’s bloom, away we go, 500 days of summer, flags of our fathers, the chumscrubber, bright star, persuasion, defiance, and most recently an education…all left me disappointed. each had moments i enjoyed, and some had parts that i loved. none of them blew me away, though, or touched me, moved me, made me want to watch them again the next day. any suggestions? i’m sick of being underwhelmed. ugh.

:: whales.

{click image for link}

:: waiting. for those keeping track, next month is my mother’s big oncology appointment when we decide if she’s going to begin chemotherapy treatment for leukemia or not. in april, july was far + hot + blurry. now it’s practically tomorrow. it’s kind of like realizing how close the spring semester is once you reach the other side of new years, except not entirely because these tests predict + affect our lives in a way that dwarfs sociology 101. overall i’m hopeful + optimistic. strangely, or maybe miraculously, enough i’ve managed to put the reality of cancer in a box and put the box in a locked drawer for the last month, in a denial-free, functioning sort of way.  that could change soon though. and it’s a little scary.

:: history. i’ve always been an english + history > math + science type girl, the emphasis being on english, obviously. recently, however, i’ve really started to fall in love with history. the language arts have been an integral part of my life for so long, it’s exciting to be excited by another branch of education, another world of courses, another potential career path. it makes me a bit sad for people who can’t figure out one thing they want to do, and very grateful that i have trouble settling on just one. and also very grateful that i have the opportunity to take the classes i do on this beautiful + addicting subject.

:: these forgotten moments…

what were your last four weeks like, my dears?

xo Alison

p.s. have you bought the new jack johnson yet? it’s kind of amazing. ❤